1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a battery storing device configured to store a battery.
Priority is claimed on Japanese Patent Application No. 2011-260315, filed Nov. 29, 2011, the content of which is incorporated herein by reference.
2. Description of the Related Art
All patents, patent applications, patent publications, scientific articles, and the like, which will hereinafter be cited or identified in the present application, will hereby be incorporated by reference in their entirety in order to describe more fully the state of the art to which the present invention pertains.
In a plant or a factory, a sensor apparatus such as a differential pressure transmitter or a temperature transmitter, a valve apparatus such as a flow rate control valve or an on-off valve, an actuator apparatus such as a fan or a motor, and other field devices are installed numerously. A conventional field apparatus is connected to a wired communication bus installed at a plant or the like, and transmission and reception of various signals are generally performed by wired communication. In recent times, a field apparatus (a wireless field apparatus) configured to perform transmission and reception of various signals through wireless communication is realized.
Since, in most cases, such a wireless field apparatus is installed alone at the plant or the like and can receive power distribution (for example, power distribution via a communication bus) from the outside, a battery is used as a power supply. Here, since a combustible gas may be used in the plant or the like, the battery used in the wireless field apparatus is mostly stored in a battery storing device satisfying an explosion-proof standard. Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, First Publication No. 2009-277513 discloses a battery storing device configured to store a battery in a state in which a positive pole and a negative pole are pressed by coil springs.
Here, since the battery storing device disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, First Publication No. 2009-277513 is configured such that the battery is pressed by the coil spring, an instantaneous interruption or contact error due to vibrations can be prevented. However, since the battery cannot be sufficiently fixed through only a pressing force by the coil spring, when vibrations or impacts are applied to the battery storing device, the battery moves in the battery storing device to add further vibrations or impacts to the battery. Then, destruction or the like of a power device or a power collection mechanism in the battery may be generated to deteriorate the performance of the battery.
Here, when a shock absorbing material (for example, a silicon-based elastic body) conforming to a size of the battery stored in the battery storing device is installed in the battery storing device, the battery disposed in the battery storing device is considered to be sufficiently fixed to attenuate the vibrations or impacts applied to the battery. However, since a standard of the battery is defined to have a somewhat large clearance width, the size of the battery is currently different according to each manufacturer. For example, in a standard (IEC60086, JIS C 8500, etc.) related to a primary battery, a monotype (D size) battery is defined to have a diameter in a range of 32.2 to 34.2 mm, and a length in a range of 59.5 to 61.5 mm.
For this reason, even if the shock absorbing material appropriate for the size of the battery provided from a certain manufacturer is installed, when the size of the battery of another manufacturer to be stored in the battery storing device is small, the battery cannot be sufficiently fixed, and the vibrations or impacts may be applied to the battery and cause performance deterioration of the battery. On the other hand, when the size of the battery of the other manufacturer to be stored in the battery storing device is large, the battery cannot be stored in the battery storing device, or a large force is needed upon insertion and extraction of the battery and thus battery exchange cannot be easily performed.